A Call That Changed Her Entire Life novel Chapter 147

The rest of the people there started realizing the danger they were facing.

Their families, jobs, houses, savings, everything they had worked for... It would all be for nothing if they died there. What had they done wrong? Nothing that happened was their fault.

But they were all going to pay for it, for that one woman who did not have the guts to come out and admit that she had hurt Emily.

"Mr. Gu, now I remember!" spoke up Sheila, who had been slapped and almost strangled by Jacob the night before. "Lynn went out after Miss Bai left, and when she came back, she wasn't wearing the same clothes. At that time, I remember being puzzled about it and even asked her where she had gone. But she dodged the question and didn't give me a straight answer! I found that quite suspicious even before I knew about Miss Bai's incident!"

Sheila's comment seemed honest. In fact, she was almost scared to death after last night. When she later found out that Emily was not hurt that badly, she seemed really relieved. After the previous night's gruesome episode between her and Jacob, she was planning to keep a low profile and avoid being anywhere near Emily or Jacob until the vacation was over, but unfortunately, she got caught up in this new altercation all due to the fact that she had worn purple the day before.

Sheila's insinuation took Lynn by surprise. She quickly forced herself to turn her frightened look into a confused one, and rebutted loudly at once,"I beg you pardon? Don't you dare frame ME! Everyone in our company knows you hate Miss Bai. You pick on her every time you see her. In fact, yesterday she left because of you! You have the biggest motivation here to hurt her!"

"Oh, seriously? Unlike you, I have lots of alibis who saw that I didn't leave the place at all yesterday," Sheila justified herself angrily,"Tell me, what did you do outside after you left?" she persisted.

"Shut up both of you," uttered Jacob firmly. Immediately, both Sheila and Lynn closed their mouths shut and didn't dare to say another word.

"Who else went out yesterday?" Jacob continued.

Everyone was initially confused by his question, wondering how it tied in with the issue at hand. However, once they had a chance to think about it, they realized he was checking all their alibis. So they all reported on their own as well as each other's activities, some on a more accusing note than others as if any friendship between them had suddenly ended. After carefully putting all the pieces of last night's events together, Sam concluded that it could have only been Sheila or Lynn who had attempted to assassinate Emily.

Everyone who was deemed innocent was allowed to leave. They all breathed a sigh of relief and rushed back to their places of residence.

If they had known that this journey would almost cost them their lives, they would have not gone in the first place. But now, having dodged the bullet, they could make the most of the time they had left there, and look forward to seeing their families again.

Back at the hall

"Lynn, I'm so sure you hurt Miss Bai. Admit it! However much you try to cover it up with your sophisticated language, the truth will always come out," Sheila incited her into confessing. She couldn't stand her hypocrisy anymore. It had to be Lynn who hurt Emily, and yet she dared to blame Sheila so nonchalantly. Realizing Lynn would never admit to it, she had to try to reason with Jacob instead,"Mr. Gu, you must believe me. Although I envied Miss Bai, I had nothing to do with this! I would not have the courage to harm her! Besides, I didn't leave the barbecue place at all yesterday."

Lynn bit her lip, as she knew this was the weak point in her story and Sheila kept bringing it up. She had to fight her guilty conscience and turn the tables around. So she contended,"Although you did not leave yesterday, you could still ask other people to follow Miss Bai and push her into the river! Besides, last night when we found out that Miss Bai was missing, I saw you chuckling to yourself."

Sheila was fuming at Lynn's words. She would have strangled her right then and there. She kept telling herself in disbelief, 'Lynn is such an evil bitch. She must have planned to use my jealousy against Emily all along, and try to convince Jacob that I'm the bad guy here.' How could she show Jacob the real Lynn?

While Sheila was racking her brains to come up with a way to prove her innocence, Jacob called out Lynn's bluff himself,"How did you know that Emily was pushed into the water?"

Jacob had learned about it only a few hours earlier. Lynn couldn't have known unless she had been there... Unless she was the one who pushed Emily into the water.

Sheila cheered up at his words. She immediately seized the opportunity to further investigate,"Yes! Up until a few moments ago, I knew nothing about the water. How would you know that if you didn't do it? You must have done it!"

Lynn turned pale with fear. She realized that was the end of her. Unable to put on an act any longer, she began speaking nonsense,"I didn't... didn't hurt her; not me! no... wait."

Sheila put her heart at rest, realizing that Jacob wouldn't doubt her anymore. At that point, all she wanted was to get as far away as possible from that hall. However, she didn't dare to do so because of Jacob's unpredictably impulsive personality. Therefore, she decided to simply be quiet enough for him to forget she was even there.

Lynn's babbles were all Jacob needed to expel any of his remaining doubts. Furthermore, among the clues that Sam's people found by the river was a piece of the purple skirt that Lynn had worn the previous day and one of her earrings. All that combined with Lynn's gibberish proved she was the woman who had pushed Emily into the water.

Noticing her own incoherence, Lynn bit her lips fearfully and kept quiet. She might as well have admitted that she was the one trying to murder Emily.

For a few seconds, Jacob stared at her as if she was already a dead person and then commented,"You're a lost cause anyway! To kill you now would be a favor to you; so I won't do that... just yet. First, you tell me who instructed you!"

Defeated, Lynn replied as if reciting from a textbook,"You had a blind spot for Emily. I could not bear that. I was very jealous of her and thus, planned to kill her yesterday." Lynn's words sounded mechanical, emotionless. She even had a blank expression while saying that, as if they weren't really her own words.

Sheila was absolutely confused by those statements. She wondered if perhaps Lynn had lost her mind completely. Did Lynn think that if she killed Emily, Jacob would notice her more? Was she hearing herself?

However, Jacob was way too familiar with the drill. He quickly realized that Lynn had been instructed to memorize a worst-case-scenario confession in order to cover up for the real murderer.

Sneering, Jacob exchanged looks with Sam. Sam immediately understood what he meant. With an upward nod, he asked someone to bring in a large iron cage covered by a black cloth. Jacob stared at Lynn contemptuously as he pulled down the cloth, revealing a giant black bear. The bear slowly began to turn around.

Lynn turned to stone at sight of the huge beast. It had its eyes set on her. If allowed, it would rush out of the cage and pounce on her.

Just a moment later, the bear roared with its snout sniffing towards Lynn. It then grasped the iron door excitedly, beating against the cage. She quickly covered her mouth with her palms before letting out a desperate shriek.

Sheila was also shocked. And why wasn't Jacob letting her go already? She would have liked to leave right away.

Jacob looked at the black bear, without a flicker of fear in his cold eyes. He asked Lynn again,"Who gave you those orders?"

"No...nobody. I did it myself," replied Lynn all alarmed. It was obvious she wasn't telling the truth.

Jacob was not in the mood to play games any longer, so he decided to cut to the chase. With a quick eye movement, he directed Sam to grab Lynn and drag her over to the side of the cage.

At that point, the black bear roared even louder than before. Like a lightning bolt, it charged towards Lynn but was halted by the iron cage. One of its paws did, however, reach over to Lynn's face and almost scratched her.

"Ahhh!" Lynn screamed, completely terrified. She kept struggling to escape but was pinned down by Sam. Right in front of her eyes was the bear's giant mouth which would take her life away with just one bite.

Jacob then ordered Sam, with a stern expression,"Open the cage and throw her in."

At the sound of those words, Lynn frantically yelled,"Nooo! You can't do this to me. I don't want to go in. Help!" She had never been so scared. Her whole body was shaking and her face was all covered in tears.

Watching the horrible scene happen in front of her eyes, Sheila was petrified as well. Her knees became weak all of a sudden. Unable to stand anymore, she had to lie on the ground as far away from the bear as possible.

'Gosh, this is horrible! Phew! Thank goodness, I didn't do anything to Emily because of my stupid envy and jealousy. Otherwise, I would be the one turning into that bear's meal, and it looks hungry, ' thought Sheila.

Jacob, however, wasn't about to put Lynn into the cage yet. He needed her to talk and was trying to scare her enough for her to break. Realizing his plan was working, he waved his hand towards Sam, instructing him to let Lynn loose. As soon as Sam released her, Lynn crawled eagerly to the opposite corner, far away from the cage. Watching its prey back away, the bear howled angrily. Both Sheila and Lynn got shaken to their core by that sound, trembling like a leaf in the storm.

It was at that moment that Jacob felt a shred of empathy, as their fear made him realize how desperate and hopeless Emily must have been when she faced the black bear in the woods by herself.

"Tell me," he insisted on a calmer voice. He no longer had the patience to continue the grueling interrogation.